Mmmhmm...mmmhmmm...
That's what I thought. 100% of you living between Indiana and the East Coast raised your hands, plus a good number of those who live outside this area. For those of you who didn't raise your hands, a derecho is the biggest, windiest, most destructive storm short of a hurricane that you can think of. In fact, some of the winds present within the derecho were clocked at speeds that would qualify as Category 1 hurricane winds or F1 tornadoes. That's right. Hurricanes and tornadoes.
Needless to say this left me without a kitchen to bake in and, without the luck of parents who own a generator and had space in the freezer, would have left me with hundreds of dollars of wasted food. In the end I probably only lost about fifty dollars worth, which I know is a hugely lucky break. However, it has still taken almost three weeks to return to some sense of normalcy and actually bake and cook again. (And clean, and do laundry, and...) Although I have to tell you, as I write this, I keep glancing out the window at the pouring, sheeting rain thinking "No, not another one. Please, please, please, please give us rain but not another derecho!" We need the rain, we sure do, but I can tell you right now that with power pole supplies east of the Mississippi depleted we do NOT need the wind.
I know, I know, I hear your cries, "But where's the FOOD? You promised me food!" And I shall deliver. In fact, today I shall share with you one of my favorite doughs of all time. Those of you with a little Czech background have almost certainly heard of the klobasnek or the kolache. Those of you from Texas have also certainly heard of these, but by an incorrect name. What the Kolache Factory calls a kolache is, about fifty percent of the time, not.
What's the difference? A klobasnek (klobasnicky in the plural) is a soft yeasted dough wrapped around a savory filling. A kolache, on the other hand, is the same dough, but around a sweet filling, perhaps pie or (my personal favorite) poppyseed. The Resident Taste Tester, who grew up in Texas, has taken a while to learn the difference, but he knows he won't get any if he doesn't call them by their proper names. Of course, without him I probably wouldn't even know what a klobasnek or a kolache was, but once I had the traditional sausage and cheese variety I was bent on replicating them.
This search led to my favorite dough, so light and airy it is practically insubstantial. In fact, the next time I make klobasnicky, I may just have to make some without filling, just because. So here it is, dough for klobasnicky and kolaches. Try it with sausage, try it with poppyseed, try it plain - just be sure to try it.
Klobasnicky
The most important instructions for the following are those pertaining to the dough. For the fillings you may use anything that suits your fancy. I have made sausage and cheese, blueberry pie filling, and s'more varieties. I hope to make poppyseed kolaches when the filling shows back up in stores closer to the holidays. Also, a note about the dough. It WILL be sticky. You WILL make a bit of a mess. I would not add much extra flour, although you can use it on your hands to make the dough stick less.
1/4 cup warm water (about 115 degrees)
1 cup warm milk (about 115 degrees)
1/2 cup sugar
4 1/2 teaspoons yeast
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup vegetable shortening (melted a cooled, but not resolidified)
1/4 cup warm milk (about 115 degrees)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 egg yolks
2 1/4 cups flour
Fillings of your choice
Warm the 1/4 cup water and 1 cup milk in a saucepan over medium heat to approximately 115 degrees. Stir together warm water, milk, sugar, yeast, and 1 3/4 cups flour and let raise for one hour in a warm place.
Add shortening, 1/4 cup warm milk, salt, yolks, and 2 1/4 cups flour. Beat until well-mixed and let raise again for approximately one hour or until doubled.
Stir the dough down to release the air. Prepare klobasnicky or kolaches. For klobasnicky, wrap sausage and cheese or other savory fillings entirely in the dough. Half of a good quality beef frank and a piece of cheese takes approximately a golf-ball-sized piece of dough. Do NOT overwrap. The dough expands in the oven. Traditional kolaches are formed by making an indentation in a ball of dough, then filling the indentation with filling such as lemon, strawberry, or poppyseed.
Let prepared pieces stand on greased cookie trays for 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Just prior to baking, you may coat the klobasnicky or kolaches with an egg wash made of one egg and a tablespoon of water. This is optional. Bake each tray for 15 minutes until pieces are golden brown. Remove with caution and allow to cool a bit before eating. Makes approximately 20.
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